Obama's First Lie?

A new blog post on The American Thinker web site from January 20 caught my attention, and I wanted to share it with others not because I agree with the author, but because of the mindset his post represents.

Jay Rubin wrote immediately after President Barack Obama was sworn in that "Barack Obama was not President of the United States for five minutes before he spoke his first untruth to the American people."

And what exactly was the lie? That Obama claimed during his inaugural speech that "Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath." Rubin quickly argues that if President Obama was "as smart as the mainstream media has proclaimed," he would not have uttered such a statement.

Let's cut to the chase here. Rubin cites the fact that President Grover Cleveland served two separate, non-consecutive terms as the 22nd and 24th president. That means he is counted twice when counting how many presidents the United States has had, but since he is only one person, only 43 men have held the office.

Rubin is clearly taking a cheap shot at President Obama with this post, questioning his knowledge, his fact checking abilities, his interest in the men who have preceded him as president, and his judgment, since he surrounded himself with people unable or unwilling to verify the accuracy of his speech before it was delivered.

Now, this is beyond petty, and Rubin toward the end of his post acknowledges this in a sense when he says, "I would agree that this misstatement-forty-four rather than forty-three-is too trivial to be classified as a lie." Okay, but then what is the point of the post?

Rubin's mindset, and his intention are clear even to a casual observer: there is a segment of the nearly 60 million Americans who voted against President Obama that will not pass up, under any circumstances, an opportunity to criticize or take a shot at him, no matter how trivial the topic may be. Obama is not universally loved, and his victory in the popular vote was not nearly as sweeping as his victory in the electoral college.

It kind of reminds me of many of the ridiculous shots taken at George W. Bush by many on the left over the past 8 years. There is no doubt, to me at least, that some of those who feel President Bush was unfairly treated will be sure to subject President Obama to some trivial, and unnecessary critiques.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/01/the_first_untruth.html